The Sherwood Shessions

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I don't have a great deal to do with the Nottingham music scene these days, neither do I go to anywhere near as many gigs as I did when I was on the radio. My tastes have changed too regarding live music, and although I maintain that music sounds better if it is being played in front of you, it is also a sight better if you can sit down while they do it. One event I attend regularly is the Sherwood Sessions, an intimate affair on the first Sunday of the month at Bradey's Micro Pub.

The show is organised and hosted by Paul Carbuncle, a local folk-punk hero and one of my best and closest friends. Paul pulls together a selection of the best musicians around and opens the proceedings, usually accompanied by his daughter Tibbie Star on harmonica.

As I film all these performances, I have created a new playlist on YouTube. I am way behind with editing and uploading but there's a selection of videos available now.

The Sherwood Shessions collection on YouTube can be found here.

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Yesterday was the first Thursday of the month so I was once again ensconced in the cosy surroundings of the Nelson and Railway in Kimberly. I am going to try for a full sweep and go to every one this year if I can in the hope that I might win a prize. This means that I will have to remember not to get booked for a Dickens show on the 6th of December. Last night, and I can't quite remember how this conversation started - not because I was drunk but I just forget, we discussed the idea of leaving the pub after the December gig and getting a plane to Las Vegas but I can't imagine that happening. For the first time in ages I actually turned up on time which was good because George Gadd was opening. The fact that he was opening, combined with the fact that he did the gig in the first place was something that a lot of Nottingham musicians should take notes about. A lot of musicians that are way below him on the ladder (including George's ex-girlfriend) would consider a pub gig in the sticks to be beneath them, obviously these are the ones who will never break out of the city's glass walled environs towards bigger and better things. George has sold out Bodega and played massive shows far and wide yet he was still available to appear bottom of the bill at a pub gig for about forty people. You have to respect him for that.

Another person on the bill was Richard Jenkins, who I obviously asked to make an episode of The Random Sessions (aside from the beer and the company, this is what I go to this event for) and Paris Alexander (pictured) who has come on in leaps and bounds since we filmed an episode last summer so I want to get her in the studio (upstairs room at the Hop Merchant) again as soon as possible. Megan was also there who has expressed an interested in returning for a second episode as she has developed immensely since starting out only a couple of years ago when a mutual friend sent me a video of a nervous performer playing an open mic night. This is a lovely knock-on of making these videos with a mixture of established artists and relative unknowns. 

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Yesterday was a definite blood pressure raiser for sure due to issues with the Internet delaying my uploading of the podcast and forcing me into the decision to quit doing the weekly video on Facebook. However, in the grand scheme of problems, I am lucky and once I have calmed down I realise that my problems usually are not problems at all but mere inconveniences. 

I attended a fundraiser last night for the family of my friend Steve McGill, a musician from Nottingham who has not been able to work since the Christmas holiday due to his daughter being in hospital with a brain tumour. I don't feel I am intruding by writing this as the story has been in the local press.

The venue was full to the rafters and despite the running order on stage being a bit of a mess, the artists were brilliant and everyone was there because they wanted to show support. A gig like this could have been a risk as it was on the same day as the inaugural Beat the Streets festival (which I missed due to shouting at my computer). A shit ton of money was raised by bucket rattling, a raffle with prizes donated, and Nina Smith managed to pull £100 in about two minutes by auctioning a hand drawn picture. It was a night of love and compassion that I doubt we'll see the like of again.

Steve understandably looked worn out but the news from McGill HQ is positive and of course everybody wanted to give their best wishes and support for someone who is genuinely one of the good guys. I didn't remember until I was walking home, but Steve recorded a session for my American show a few years ago. At the moment I am re-releasing these sessions on YouTube so as soon as I find it I am going to upload it and add a link to the Just Giving page. 

At ten o'clock-ish, Steve took to the stage and after a few words of thanks he sang a stripped acoustic version of 'Stuck in a Moment' which earned him a well deserved standing ovation and thankfully it was captured.

This is usually where I ask for a donation, and I still will. Go to the fundraising page for the McGill family here.

Picture from Psychology Research

As I said yesterday, if you're involved in the Nottingham music scene and have a day job then the clever ones among us will have booked yesterday off work to recover from the Hockley Hustle. Working on Hockley Hustle Boxing Day (as nobody calls it) is not something I want to experience and the stressful world of medical negligence litigation would just have to manage without me. Having two full time jobs, one for money and one for love (with less money involved), means of course that I can never have a simple day off and had planned to spend today in my office playing catch up. 

I had asked Mandi to wake me up before she left for work, (guess the song I sing while asking this favour, every time) so that I could have a good start. I wanted to record a couple of podcasts and catch up on writing the script for A Christmas Carol, along with ploughing through some admin and general housekeeping. At nine o'clock I was up with the lark and downstairs to kiss Mandi goodbye and start my day. It would be some special kind of idiot who took a cup of tea up to the bedroom and got back in bed to check Facebook on the phone, especially as Facebook on a phone is shit in comparison to on a computer like the one waiting for me in my office. It was eleven o'clock when I woke up with an untouched cold cup of tea on my bedside table. This is why I am my own worst enemy, the thought of a lie in was enticing and I obviously needed to catch up on my sleep, but I spent the next hour and a bit thoroughly pissed off with myself. Pulling on some jeans and a jumper that I found on the floor next to the bed, I took Jack for a walk. He doesn't give a shit about my workload, the only thing he enjoys is being outside and I cheered up when he got all excited at the sight of his lead being removed from the coat-hooks. 

Rather than waste any more time I treated myself (and Jack) to a bacon and egg cob from the sandwich shop near my house, and went up to finally crack on with it. Sadly I achieved very little besides recording this week's podcast but maybe it is nice to spend some quality time doing nothing?

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 This week's edition of The Sunday Alternative is here. 

Thank you in advance for donating using the PayPal button at the top of this page. It all goes towards creating podcasts, sketches, documentaries, films and more, all of which I will make available for free in return for your generosity.

The film idea from yesterday's blog has been running around my head all day and given that my Jake Bugg themed sitcom It's A Bugg's Life probably won't happen I need a new imaginary project. Despite the upcoming cassette launch gig I have to sort out, (along with the actual cassette to produce) and the radio play among other real projects, it seems typical that I have this idea running through my head. It wouldn't work as a full scale movie but could make an amusing web-series with short episodes, the bands could play themselves and I would take the part of Oliver Stevenson. All I need now are two people to play the totally fictional policemen Detective Inspector Jackson and Chief Inspector Del and we have a cast. I am sure that this could happen, if only I had the time and wasn't preparing proper work that will generate money. Make a donation using the PayPal button at the top of the page and we shall see. At the moment I am trying to make a short film using the cardboard cut out police that you see in shops as a theft deterrent, but getting hold of enough cardboard police officers isn't as easy as you would think. There's also a thing about Burger King I am toying with for next year which I am planning to film entirely by phone so costs will be fairly low in comparison, it will also be a one man operation in the main and will take all year to produce so it isn't on the top of my list but will be worked on intermittently throughout 2017.

Today the film without a name (can anyone think of a name?) had a sequel commissioned as it became official that The Spangle Corps are calling it a day. 

I can't remember the first time I heard or played a Spangle Corps track on radio, but they're a name that seem to have been around a long time. What attracted me to them, possibly on a subconscious level, is the fact that they are outsiders to the Nottingham music scene. When I published the press release when I resigned from the American show criticising local musicians for their attitude, Vincent was among the first people to publicly fight my corner even though at the time we had never met. Since meeting and becoming friends we have worked together on a few occasions, (the band played one of my gigs at The Maze and Vincent played on the first Random Saturday Sessions of this year) and I have seen them perform several times. Also, and this means a lot to me, they thanked me for playing them on the Steve Oliver's Nottingham 2015 podcast series. This means that they actually listened to each one as I made a point of not publishing track lists. The fact that their last gig in their current form is on my stage is a huge compliment and they are headlining too. If you have never seen them before and can be in Nottingham on Sunday October 9th then it is worth coming to Bunkers Hill where I am hosting The Sunday Alternative stage for this year's Hockley Hustle.

We'd better hope that We Do Not Come From London don't arrange to have them killed and have me framed for it. That line will make no sense unless you have read yesterday's blog.

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 This week's edition of The Sunday Alternative is here. 

Thank you in advance for donating using the PayPal button at the top of this page. It all goes towards creating podcasts, sketches, documentaries, films and more, all of which I will make available for free in return for your generosity.

There was no fanfare, no press conference, no big statement and saddest of all, no goodbye gig. The below message appeared quietly on Facebook yesterday.

As the message suggests, we had guessed that Captain Dangerous had come to the end of the road but until it became official I suppose we just wanted to imagine that something big would happen. I happen to know that there's an album worth of unreleased material and the release accompanied by a final live performance would have been one of the biggest shows to hit Nottingham in recent history and would have raised the bar for all future Nottingham gigs. The story of Captain Dangerous could fill a book with anecdotes that nobody would quite believe. 

The band were my introduction to the strange world that is the Nottingham music scene, seeing them win the poll to open the new Market Square in 2007. This was the period that should have seen them suddenly shoot out of the glass walls of Nottingham but it wasn't to be. Maybe 2007 was a bit early for them to break, but at some point between then and now if there had been any justice they would have become Nottingham's biggest export. The local music press haven't exactly been supportive of them, (especially compared to the coverage they give to other artists) so in researching this blog I was surprised to find interviews and articles on Leftlion's website, especially as this was in Leftlion's Al Needham era when music was apologetically given minimal coverage. Looking at the band's blog written by Adam Clarkson gives an insight into how much work was being done to push the band in the early days with gigs up and down the country. At home they were the first unsigned band to fill Rock City basement, and have filled every gig they have done. They headlined Branch Out in 2012, appeared at Splendour and more recently filled Jam Cafe on several occasions (the last time if my memory serves was as part of the 2014 Hockley Hustle - the same year they blew everyone off the stage at Waterfront). I have seen them sell out Rescue Rooms twice, yet that never seems to warrant a mention by the local press when talking about Nottingham music in the pre-Bugg era, not even in an article written this year titled '17 Notts Bands You May Have Forgotten' in Leftlion. It is as if they have been airbrushed out of history yet when you look on YouTube for them there is a rich collection of videos and performances available giving a history lesson on the band. 

As for my own involvement, they were one of the first local bands I interviewed when I was first making a nuisance of myself in local music journalism and the first band I filmed in what was to become a prototype for The Random Saturday Sessions way back in 2010 when I recorded this one Sunday afternoon. I became friends with Adam (lead singer, the other members of the band don't like me for some reason) who has publicly acknowledged my support for the band over the years, and had my back when I have caused waves in my reviewing. I have never broken his confidence (I'll reiterate that he should write his memoirs on the Captain Dangerous years) and as such we have talked about yesterday's news. On a more pleasing note there is a new band on the way soon and I for one will be first in the queue to see them when they go out. 

Maybe it will be taken down, so just in case it does I recommend downloading the album if you haven't already. 

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 This week's edition of The Sunday Alternative is here. 

Thank you in advance for donating using the PayPal button at the top of this page. It all goes towards creating podcasts, sketches, documentaries, films and more, all of which I will make available for free in return for your generosity.

Picture from Nottingham Post

It was in the local news today that the defunct music venue Junktion 7 is to be knocked down and turned into student flats. For once I am not angry about something being knocked down as the building is a 1960s eyesore, the type favoured by Nottingham Council in the era of cash backhanders to allow the vandalism of beautiful Victoriana in exchange for grey blocks, I am however starting to wonder just what is behind the obsession with turning everything in Nottingham into student accommodation when we only have two Universities and I have never seen a student sleeping rough. I am quite happy to go on record as saying that I believe that Nottingham Council is still infested with people who have more money under the mattress than in their pay packet, it would explain a lot of the stupid decisions that are made. 

Anyway, this isn't about how shit and corrupt Nottingham Council is, nor is it about how they still haven't learned their lesson regarding architectural vandalism and apologised. It is about music venues. There are plenty of brilliant venues in the city and there seems to be a new one popping up all the time, such is the pool of musical talent on offer in Nottingham, so it is (I would imagine) reasonably easy for a talented musician to get a gig. Come to think of it you don't always need to be talented, I have watched some real stinkers but I like living in a world where the crap bands get a chance too, it does no harm because they will fade away into obscurity and nobody will remember them. When I want to see live music I am spoilt for choice, so I am not mourning the demise of Junktion 7, in fact I would go so far as to say I couldn't give a shit.

Don't get me wrong, I have no axe to grind with them and I fully understand why it has stirred nostalgic feelings in people, but Junktion 7 made no impact on my life. A few people have asked my opinion on today's news (not the local media obviously because I am invisible to them) and I have told them that I have no connection to it so I can't join in with today's mourning. Facebook and Twitter had a smattering of people who had played or promoted there, and with it as part of your history then it is understandable.

I moved back to Nottingham in 2007 and Junktion 7 closed in 2008 (ignoring the forgettable reboot as Seven) so I went to a few gigs there but they were nothing to write home about. The other factor is that I wasn't involved in the local music scene so had no opportunity to become a regular, in fact the demise of Junktion 7 pre-dates the start of my radio career and the whole Sunday Alternative empire. For some strange reason I can't get sentimental about live music venues because it is what is on stage that counts, of course the best ones are a bit gammy around the edges (let's face it, The Maze is one of my favourite venues but the toilets are a bit of a health hazard) but if they close down I'll just go somewhere else because people won't stop performing. 

The Sunday Alternative #55 is available from here.

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September housekeeping

Please consider making a donation using the PayPal button to help finance ongoing projects such as podcasts, short films, documentaries, comedy sketches and other entertainment that I will make available online free of charge.

Any money made by the sale of products on my shop page also goes into the fund, ideal Christmas presents!

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76

I can now safely say that my Christmas special broadcast this year will be well worth listening to. Before you accuse me of being all arrogant and self serving I should explain that I am not the reason for this, the content is what people will be wanting to hear. At the time of writing it looks like I might have a two parter on my hands, which will mean releasing one episode on Christmas Eve and another of New Years Eve, both in the morning would probably be a better idea so that I can advertise it to people before they are too drunk to listen to it. All the music is collected up on a USB stick all ready and raring to go, and as I think I have said before I am not going to publish a track list or reveal the names of anyone I am playing to try and just encourage people to listen for themselves.

Recording the first part of this should have been one of the jobs I undertook on Monday when I was trying to chip away at my to-do list but I didn't have time. Hopefully I should still be able to fulfil the recording part of my to-do list now that I have trimmed the impossible tasks down and passed them on to 2016. Rather than actually start recording today I thought about how I don't want people thinking that I am playing the songs in order of preference and didn't want to keep repeating myself so I wasted a good deal of time recording a trailer for the podcast. Maybe I should have considered what I was going to say before I started recording but where is the fun in that? It's surely more entertaining to turn the recording on and ramble through like the incoherent person at the bus stop who wants to engage you in conversation. Have a listen to the introduction to give you some idea of what is going to happen.

The Sunday Alternative #54 is available from here.

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September housekeeping

Please consider making a donation using the PayPal button to help finance ongoing projects such as podcasts, short films, documentaries, comedy sketches and other entertainment that I will make available online free of charge.

Any money made by the sale of products on my shop page also goes into the fund, ideal Christmas presents!

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76

Picture from Facebook

Although I wasn't really in the mood for it I decided that I have to get back into seeing live music on a regular basis, if I continue to avoid going to gigs while at the same time championing local music there is a danger I could end up with a show on Notts TV. Yesterday's proceedings took place from one o'clock in the afternoon but I wandered up after lunch at my dad's and missed a chunk of the opening sets. The Maze hold this all day acoustic event every year and the line up this year was of the usual high quality. I have in the past spoken out against the constant barrage of singer/guitarists but on occasions like this when the fat has been trimmed leaving just the meat it is an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday evening, especially with a Bank Holiday Monday following it so you don't have to get up early. 

To tell the truth I was getting bored of going to gigs in Nottingham on a club level as I just couldn't get excited by the same stuff all the time, but although yesterday did throw up some familiar faces there was plenty of variety. The first person I saw (and I did stick mainly in the front bar for most of the day) was a new name to me, Joseph Knight, who impressed me by playing to a handful of people most of them talking of course. He was the only unfamiliar face I saw although there were a few people I had not seen for a while, next up was Stanley Mackerel who didn't really fit a Sunday afternoon due to the content of his act but was entertaining and went down well with the small gathering. Somehow I have managed to miss seeing One Million Motors since he appeared on my radio show but he has continued to plug away and make a name for himself which is good to see. Adam Clarkson treated us to some new songs and was joined by Alex Hale for a song, someone else I haven't seen for way too long. Emily Martin (not sure if she is using her recently acquired married name professionally, she's changed it on Facebook) is someone I have seen before but not accompanied by Kym (they were billed as Kym and Emily) and together they sounded amazing. Their set was mostly covers at this stage in their life but I will be keeping an eye (and most importantly and ear) out for original material from them. We sat and watched We Show Up On RadaR, another singer I haven't seen for ages and his show was as brilliant as ever, I made a cheeky phone recording which is enhanced by Adam shouting at everyone to shut up.

The Sunday Alternative #54 is available from here.

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August housekeeping

We are now in the eighth month of the year and at a standstill as far as work is concerned. In unrelated news, it is my birthday on the 27th of this month so a nice present would be a donation using the PayPal button. This would be spent on creating podcasts, documentaries, short films, comedy sketches and various other entertainments that I will make available to enjoy online for free.

The above t-shirt and bag is also available to buy, all the money goes to the same creative fund. They are on my shop page.

I'll play you a kazoo song request, find out how here.

Letter of complaint written for you for £2, here.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76

The official announcements took place in Nottingham while I was away this week so I wasn't really in the right frame of mind to be shouting about it, but now I can finally go on record and say what I have been desperate to say for ages. The Sunday Alternative Live will next month be a part of the Hockley Hustle. Aside from my thinly disguised hint a little while ago I have done really well to keep quiet. 

As I said before I have in my opinion one of the strongest line-ups of the whole festival and as I am someone who has still never really been accepted with open arms into the Nottingham music scene this is a pretty big deal for me and a bit of acceptance for The Sunday Alternative at last. I don't know if I will be able to have everything filmed and recorded as usual seeing as this is part of a bigger event so I will have to wait and see. 

What this will achieve if I don't fuck the whole thing up is a further string to the bow of the name The Sunday Alternative as a (grits teeth to use a word I didn't really want to use) 'brand'. I've already gone from a radio show to a much more successful podcast and now a live gig so I am always looking at how to add more strings to the aforementioned bow. Although I don't want to get into competition with the other promoters around Nottingham, I do feel that as a one man operation that I can stand alongside them. Once I'm standing beside them I'll get someone to tie all their shoelaces together so I can win!

The Sunday Alternative #53 is available from here.

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August housekeeping

We are now in the eighth month of the year and at a standstill as far as work is concerned. In unrelated news, it is my birthday on the 27th of this month so a nice present would be a donation using the PayPal button. This would be spent on creating podcasts, documentaries, short films, comedy sketches and various other entertainments that I will make available to enjoy online for free.

The above t-shirt and bag is also available to buy, all the money goes to the same creative fund. They are on my shop page.

I'll play you a kazoo song request, find out how here.

Letter of complaint written for you for £2, here.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76

I used to present a radio show called NottinghamLIVE in which we played music made by Nottingham musicians and had them play in the studio. Also, I presented a show in America called The Sound of Nottingham UK where I played music made by Nottingham musicians and gave them their first airplay over the Atlantic. Now, I have no outlet for Nottingham music apart from occasionally playing them on The Sunday Alternative, which was never pitched as a Nottingham show.  Although I still try and play a part in the local music world I am happier being a member of the audience these days, especially if the audience shut the fuck up talking while the artist is working. Aside from occasionally popping up on NG Digital I don't tend to get too involved, preferring to champion music on merit rather than its geographical location. 

Somewhere in this blog I have mentioned presenting an end of year podcast playing my favourite Nottingham created music of 2015, which I have started preparing today. This means that I have spent a lot of time recently listening to local music in the name of research, and that isn't a bad way to spend time.

As someone not known for hiding my feelings when it comes to expressing an opinion, I am able to restrict this podcast (that may be more than one edition) to things that I like to listen to and not worry about compromise. I have only ever played my own choice of songs on the radio and in podcasts with the exception of NottinghamLIVE that was a team effort and that inevitably meant that I wasn't keen on every song (or artist) we played. This podcast isn't going to take the form of a chart or list based on favourites, it is all in no particular order. To make things even more interesting I am not going to tell any band or musician that they are featured and I am not going to publish a track list, the podcast is just going to be thrown out into the Internet and if you want to listen to it you can and if you don't then that is fine with me. 

Steve Oliver's Nottingham 2015 will be released in December sometime, maybe Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and if it goes to a two parter then the second part will come a week later either on New Year's Eve/Day. If I like you, you might be on it.

The Sunday Alternative #50 is available from here.

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August housekeeping

We are now in the eighth month of the year and at a standstill as far as work is concerned. In unrelated news, it is my birthday on the 27th of this month so a nice present would be a donation using the PayPal button. This would be spent on creating podcasts, documentaries, short films, comedy sketches and various other entertainments that I will make available to enjoy online for free.

The above t-shirt and bag is also available to buy, all the money goes to the same creative fund. They are on my shop page.

I'll play you a kazoo song request, find out how here.

Letter of complaint written for you for £2, here.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76

(c) Alexa Hawksworth 

I haven't been out for a while due to several factors all meeting up and forming a committee that seemingly wants me to stay away from gigs, perhaps the invisible forces want me to be a true Nottingham music champion and are getting me prepared by stopping me from going out. Tonight I decided that I wanted to leave the house and watch some open mic action courtesy of Alexa Hawksworth and her regular night at Filthy's in town. I turned up a little bit late and there was a duo performing as I arrived. Of course there were people talking but not loud enough to be intrusive.

My surprise was seeing Ryan Farmer (as he is now known although he remains Ryan Thomas in the blog labels to save me having to go back and change everything) in the bar as I thought he was supporting The Most Ugly Child at another venue. A feature of this night is the headline appearance from a well known face and last night Ryan was that headliner. After a couple of pints of Guinness I was in the mood to discover new stuff which is what I did, although I rather twattishly forgot for once in my life to take my trusty notebook with me so I am unable to report on any of the acts I saw for the first time last night. Apart from Ryan of course who I have probably already recommended at some point in my life as he is an artist I rate very highly. He usually plays with a band these days but last night he played a solo set to an appreciative crowd and it was a nice change as I didn't think he would come out without his band these days but it is nice to see both sides of a performer of his calibre. 

Next time I go to a gig I will remember to write down the names of people I am impressed by. This will help me to listen to them and find out more when I get home, and also make writing about it later a lot less vague.

The Sunday Alternative #49 is available from here.

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July Housekeeping

Bags and T-Shirts are still available from here. All money goes in the fund. Feel free to browse the shop page while you're there.

If you donate £5 or more, you get to choose a song for me to cover on kazoo for a YouTube video, details here.

Seriously, I am grateful for the donations so if you haven't got round to it yet, I thank you in advance.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76

It wasn't that long ago that I wrote this on Facebook.

Live music promoter was never one of the things I ever wanted to call myself and I can honestly say that I was quite happy sticking to being a kazoo player and crisp critic with radio presenter, podcaster, writer, journalist, film maker and everything else on the side.  It wasn't until last year when certain arguments kicked off that I learned that I am quite appreciated within the music world and several people asked me why I didn't put on gigs. The obvious answer is that it looks easy but is actually quite challenging, which is why I kept out of it and decided a long time ago that I much preferred to enjoy live music as a member of the audience. When I casually tossed that Facebook post out into the Internet I wasn't expecting a great deal but it was nice to see people I hold in high regard saying that I should.

Three months later and I have Post-It notes facing me as I sit at my desk, rather than just to the side of me. If anyone reckons that putting on gigs is a piece of piss then they are wrong. For some reason I am having the biggest headache organising September as people are all on holiday. Who goes on holiday in September? Some bands and musicians that's who.

I'm not complaining though, I am loving it. Yes it is stressful at times but the end result is the reward. That is my philosophy in all aspects of my work to be honest; I hate writing and recording podcasts for example, but I love new music and sharing it. I also love the feeling of finishing a podcast and seeing it on the Internet. Writing newspaper articles is a tedious job but finishing it and seeing it in the paper is cool. The biggest ballache of all is writing a daily blog, a commitment I can't shake off but it makes me happy knowing that people are reading it. Or at least hoping that people are reading it.

The Sunday Alternative #47 is available from here.

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July Housekeeping

Bags and T-Shirts are still available from here. All money goes in the fund. Feel free to browse the shop page while you're there.

If you donate £5 or more, you get to choose a song for me to cover on kazoo for a YouTube video, details here.

Seriously, I am grateful for the donations so if you haven't got round to it yet, I thank you in advance.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76

Picture from I'm Not From London

A few weeks ago I interviewed maverick Nottingham music promoter Will Robinson for the Nottingham Post about this year's Waterfront Festival. This was a nice way to stay involved in a small way without the ballache of reviewing it for the paper like I did last year. When you turn up at a place at noon and are duty bound to stay there until half past two the following morning, you get tired. Not that I won't stay for the duration again this year but it will be nice to be there to do what I enjoy doing best which is watching live music. Waterfront is one of the biggest hitters of the Nottingham music scene and along with the Hockley Hustle are the perfect starting point for someone who wanted to begin an education in local music, I can think of a couple of music promoters who would benefit from such learning. 

Anyway, I met Will a while ago to record the interview and talked about the festival and how INFL was founded. This year sees the fifth annual Waterfront and the tenth anniversary of INFL as an organisation which has grown into gig promoters, a record label and a publishing company so he has plans involving basing the festival on a child's fifth birthday and seaside holiday. He even mentioned donkey rides and when Will says something like that, people of Nottingham who know him don't question it. Today he asked on Facebook if he could borrow an American flag and an Elvis Presley outfit, nobody batted an eyelid. We had a nice conversation about music, what bands he would put on for his dream festival, and the charities that benefit from Waterfront. This year Emmanuel House will be the one of them, along with The Wolfston Cystic Fibrosis Ward at Nottingham City Hospital. Will has cystic fibrosis and this was the basis of his philosophy that every day is worth enjoying to the fullest. As an interviewer I know I don't exactly match up to David Frost but I managed to get him to talk about it in an open and informative way which was actually quite moving.

Like a twat I managed to lose the recording because I restored my phone to boost its memory. Actually, since I installed the DU Speed Booster my phone has repeatedly slowed down and been sluggish until I responded to the option to give my phone a bit of a clean and boost. Deep down I know I should just get rid of the app because it is all psychological but somehow you can't get rid of them, or I can't. So the recording of the interview had vanished before I had the chance to transcribe it. The sound recordings on my phone can't be emailed as attachments so they just have to stay there. I don't have a cable to empty my phone onto the computer, or I do and I can't find it. I email photographs from my phone to my Gmail address so that I can download them to keep, but I can't even do that with recordings. Luckily Will sympathised and we did the interview again today using the same questions from last time, it is a good job I always carry my notebook around.  

The Sunday Alternative #47 is available from here.

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July Housekeeping

Bags and T-Shirts are still available from here. All money goes in the fund. Feel free to browse the shop page while you're there.

If you donate £5 or more, you get to choose a song for me to cover on kazoo for a YouTube video, details here.

Seriously, I am grateful for the donations so if you haven't got round to it yet, I thank you in advance.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76

Picture from Past, Tense

I popped into the Maze this evening to go over some final checks with Gaz (who runs the place) regarding the gig next Sunday. It seems like so long ago that I arranged this that I was shocked when I realised how few pages in my diary I had to turn over to get to it. My relationship with certain sections of the Nottingham music scene means that I have to get everything just right which is why I think I have left no stone unturned in this new venture. My experience as a promoter is confined to a little bit of time spent putting on gigs at the beginning of the 2000s so it has been a while. There's another one booked in for August (and I am only one band shy of a line up already) and hopefully it will run on a monthly basis before then. All four acts are going to be filmed so there should always be a backlog of weekly videos to put out on the YouTube channel. I might leave it a while though to launch the videos to create some interest, and these won't (because of having to promote the podcast) be released on Sundays, probably Saturdays although that will change if Saturday Breakfast goes to a series, which if I am honest with myself will probably not happen. 

Despite what I said about podcasts being the future of broadcasting, (which I still believe), I am pitching The Sunday Alternative to a few radio stations, especially in London. I should really be on BBC 6 Music of course but I have totally given up on that and am happy for Jarvis Cocker to do my job for me.

The live gigs aren't intended to be purely about Nottingham musicians and while there is a great pool of talent here I am wary of asking the usual people and am trying to concentrate on the bands who don't get as much attention as they deserve. Having said that, the first line up are pretty well known around town and I am astounded with myself for pulling off such a strong bill. (Just for clarity, I haven't pulled any of them off and I have no intention of doing, that is not how I get bands to appear).

The Sunday Alternative Podcast #43 (Saturday edition) is available from here.

The Sunday Alternative Podcast #44 is available from here.

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June housekeeping

The audio book of Bowie Day (a short story inspired by A Christmas Carol) will be released on August 31st. In the meantime the book can be downloaded to your Kindle from here.

All donations made using the PayPal button will go towards making podcasts, comedy sketches, live video sessions, documentaries, short films and more that will be made available online for free.

The Sunday Alternative bag and t-shirt (and other products) can be purchased from my shop page. All money raised will go into the fund to create free content.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76

Picture by Martyn Boston

The morning after an event involving Nottingham music has in the past painted me as the bad guy for daring to go against the grain of Nottingham arse licking and say what I think. My review for The Nottingham Post is actually quite nice despite everyone's expectations, and although I have said that I will be posting an unedited version on IMHO I really don't see the need. As far as I am concerned the Future Sound of Nottingham is a self indulgent pat on the back for Mark 'literally' Del to show what a nice guy he is and once the first prize is over there is no further consequence. Last night's line up of finalists was certainly the strongest in recent years and the winner was a difficult call for the judges, (for some bizarre reason I wasn't asked again) although Ellie Keegan was the only the only one who would have truely benefitted from the boost that the top prize would have given her, the others on the bill being either already well established (Cheshire and the Cat & Josh Wheatley) and not really in need of a popularity contest. 

Josh Wheatley is a talented musician who has worked really hard over the last few years, having done his first radio session for NottinghamLIVE in our early days (breaking NUSIC's rule about not being able to do a Future Sound session if they've done a radio session prior) and building up his live reputation. He goes out of his way to be nice to everybody which is why it was weird to see a posting on the Facebook event page from a woman who did not agree with the winners and singled Josh out for her disgruntlement. 

Modified version of the post, taken from Josh Wheatley's Facebook profile.

Leaving aside the fact that a great many solo artists use a backing band, this was a strange post to plant on the event page for everyone to see. It has been removed from the NUSIC page but not before Josh had copied it to his page, attracting a shit load of comments in Josh's favour. I took the opportunity to comment about how refreshing it was to not be the villain for a change, and followed it up with a long winded comment that for some reason Josh has removed. I would be interested to hear Mark 'literally' Del's take on this but he has been rather quiet since last night, maybe getting over the unfamiliarity of being in a live music venue.

On the subject of new music, today I have been listening to music for the podcast and having a catch up. Because it has been off the air for the last seven weeks I will be dispensing with my usual policy of only playing upcoming releases and playing some tracks that were sent in during the hiatus. I am going to be doing two podcasts this week, a bonus edition coming out on Saturday and one as usual on Sunday. To go back to Nottingham musicians, I have collected a lot of music for my proposed end of year podcast so there will be more than one edition of this given that we're only in June. As I intend to release these Steve Oliver's Nottingham 2015 podcasts during the Christmas holidays I might go along with the tradition of making Christmas specials and record it now during the summer.

The Sunday Alternative will return soon.

===

June housekeeping

The audio book of Bowie Day (a short story inspired by A Christmas Carol) will be released on August 31st. In the meantime the book can be downloaded to your Kindle from here.

All donations made using the PayPal button will go towards making podcasts, comedy sketches, live video sessions, documentaries, short films and more that will be made available online for free.

The Sunday Alternative bag and t-shirt (and other products) can be purchased from my shop page. All money raised will go into the fund to create free content.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76

I'm still a little nervous about it given what happened on Good Friday but I have started taking Jack to the park across from our house again. Although he gets plenty of walks he hasn't had a great deal of opportunity to have a really good run at full speed and I figured that as long as I was careful he would be okay. As soon as I picked up Jack's ball thrower he went mental with excitement and dragged me all the way there so I knew he must have missed it. I took the precaution of tying his lead round the gate in order to slow down anyone coming in, as the last incident happened because the person was unfamiliar with the unwritten rule of 'gate closed, don't come in'. As part of his reintroduction to the park I decided to take him out for short periods of time to begin with, and have generally been there for half an hour with him constantly running up and down after his ball until he gets fed up and takes it upon himself to stand at the gate and wait for me to put his lead back on him ready for home. Today he worried me slightly because the weather was (at the time) boiling hot and Jack was running constantly for about twenty minutes before he decided that he had had enough fun for one day and stood by the gate panting for all he was worth and downed two bowls of water when we got home. I had a little bit of work to do so Jack followed me to my office and sprawled out on the floor still panting. Eventually he calmed down but for a moment I thought he would have a heart attack, but he was soon back to his usual self.

On the subject of things returning to normal, I have managed to get the podcast back on track thanks to some computer tinkering and the discovery of a new programme that I can use. It has been seven weeks this weekend since a new edition of The Sunday Alternative was released and I have been desperate to get back into it as the music has been piling up. The good news is that there are some brilliant tracks in the bank so the quality of the podcast will be as high as it ever was. Now that I have sorted things out I will also be able to power through and get the audio books sorted and I am planning an end of year Nottingham music themed podcast. This started as a throwaway idea that didn't get thrown away; I play through my favourite tracks released this year but I won't be publishing the track list or telling the artists that they are on, I will just release it and let people find out for themselves whether I think their song is worth including. It isn't as if I'll get any thanks for it anyway seeing as local musicians save all of their gushing for Mark 'literally' Del and Dean Jackson despite the fact that on several occasions we got there first yet nobody thanked us. I might possibly record another Christmas show for American airplay like I did last year but it depends on people pulling their fingers out and releasing new festive tunes. My 2015 Nottingham podcast might cover several podcasts to be released over the Christmas period. My reason is simply because The Sunday Alternative isn't totally Nottingham-centric and now that I no longer present NottinghamLIVE or The Sound of Nottingham UK I don't have an outlet for Nottingham music, for how long though? Things might be being arranged behind the scenes for all you know.

The Sunday Alternative will return soon.

===

June housekeeping

The audio book of Bowie Day (a short story inspired by A Christmas Carol) will be released on August 31st. In the meantime the book can be downloaded to your Kindle from here.

All donations made using the PayPal button will go towards making podcasts, comedy sketches, live video sessions, documentaries, short films and more that will be made available online for free.

The Sunday Alternative bag and t-shirt (and other products) can be purchased from my shop page. All money raised will go into the fund to create free content.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76

Picture by A Quick Flash (I'm in here somewhere)

Last year I attended the Waterfront Festival as reviewer for the Nottingham Post and regretted taking on the assignment as I realised what I had taken on. Starting at noon on Saturday I returned home at around three o'clock the next morning and had to write the piece up for the paper before I could go to bed, by which time it was getting light outside. As gig-going mistakes go this was right up there with not booking the Monday following the Hockley Hustle off work, and a mistake I do not intend to repeat. This year's Waterfront will be written up by someone else while I enjoy myself as a customer, while I am sure it will be a good write up it will of course lack something, then again my review lacked something which is why I wrote a more honest and less polite account on my blog. Funnily enough I was told a while ago that the outdoor stage is going to be a bit more mixed up than last year as a result of my criticism so I look forward to the results, and having seen a poster containing all the names of those performing it looks like being an exceptional day for Nottingham music - certainly better than the fucking Splendour Festival.

The reason I bring this up now is despite my reluctance to review it I support the festival and hold great admiration for the tireless promotion company that is I'm Not From London so I wanted to do something to help. My contribution this year took place today when I pitched up at the INFL nerve centre in Hockley to record an interview with the company's founder Will Robinson. I have started a new system when interviewing people which seems to be working and I might continue with this unorthadox technique - I plan ahead and write down a list of relevant questions to ask. Seriously, if you're going to interview someone then plan ahead and you won't look like you're floundering - you can have that advice for free Notts TV.

My day's work was recording the interview and now I have to transcribe it, if you are someone who has to transcribe from a recording to text then you will know what a monumental pain in the bollocks of a task this is. It really has to be the worst thing in the world apart from all the things that are actually worse; famine, disease, rape, murder, racism, and people talking at gigs for example. The finished article doesn't have to be on the editor's desk (or inbox) for a few weeks yet so I could get straight on with it and have it in the paper's possession in plenty of time like a dedicated journalist and maybe be given the nickname 'Scoop' and finally earn my trilby hat with a small piece of card bearing the word 'press' sticking out of the band. On the other hand, I could piss about taking photographs of ice-cream vans and tweeting about crisps until the day before the deadline.

The Sunday Alternative will return soon.

===

June housekeeping

The audio book of Bowie Day (a short story inspired by A Christmas Carol) will be released on August 31st. In the meantime the book can be downloaded to your Kindle from here.

All donations made using the PayPal button will go towards making podcasts, comedy sketches, live video sessions, documentaries, short films and more that will be made available online for free.

The Sunday Alternative bag and t-shirt (and other products) can be purchased from my shop page. All money raised will go into the fund to create free content.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76